89% of UK employees favour fully flexible return to work
89% of UK employees would be happiest with a fully flexible approach to returning to the office, where they could work as many days remotely or from the office as they wished.
Our research for The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) explores attitudes towards working models as the UK exits the third national lockdown, assessing what employees are looking forward to on returning to office life and conversely what they are not looking forward to, and their expectations of their employers.
Key findings:
- Following the preference for a fully flexible approach to return to the office (89%); the next favoured approach is a structured 3:2 working model, at 75%.
- For all adults, the least favoured would be to work full time from the office, post Covid, at 31%, although this is significantly higher for those first jobbers (68%) and for those who have been furloughed at least one (59%).
- Things people are most looking forward to on returning to the office include: seeing colleagues face-to-face (48%), getting out of the house (41%), and easier collaboration with colleagues (34%). With 1 in 5 saying ‘feeling less lonely’.
- A return to the commute (38%) is what most concerns people, followed by the office being COVID-secure (31%) and the financial costs involved (travel costs, lunch etc. – 29%). A quarter are anxious of feeling stressed on return.
- 4 in 5 office workers believe their employer should offer mental wellness initiatives on returning to the office.
- More than two-thirds (68%) expect to see dedicated spaces and infrastructure for communicating with those working remotely at their office within the next 2-3 years.
Read more here.
